The one thing any teen doesn’t want to have happen to them is rapid, unexplained weight gain.
But Lizzie Denison-Ward, a now 20-year-old girl, had this happen to her for two years. She told the Daily Mail her story.
She started gaining weight in November 2013. She couldn’t tell why, since she had always been slender. She went from 126 pounds to 224 pounds in two years.
When she went to her doctor to try to find a reason she was gaining weight so rapidly, they told her that it was just her metabolism slowing down, and if she wanted it to come off she should eat less calories.
So she did. But even eating 1000 calories per day, nothing changed. Not only that, but she experienced a rash on her face.
She decided to do some private research. And when she paid for an MRI scan herself after doctors wouldn’t help her, she found that there was a 4 mm tumor in her brain.
The tumor was on her pituitary gland, which was preventing her from losing weight. She had Cushing's disease. If left undetected, it could have killed her.
By the time she had the MRI, she had gone up ten dress sizes.
Lizzie finally had an answer to what was causing her unhealthy weight gain, but it wasn’t without psychological cost.
“I believed the doctors after I first saw them,” said Lizzie, “but over time I thought there was something else wrong because I’ve always been thin.”
Her mother worried about her too.
She kept seeing her doctor, but to no avail. “No one could get to the bottom of it and find out what it was. It was a real low time and I was feeling depressed.”
Now that she’s finally had it removed, she’s so glad to be rid of the problem. “After I found out it was a tumor I was more relieved than anything. I was just glad I was right and I wasn’t just making it up.”
Five weeks later, Lizzie has already lost 21 pounds. She has medication to regulate her hormone levels, and she’s back to a healthy lifestyle that’s causing the weight to melt away.
“The tumor took over my whole body and now I can finally go back to living like a normal student.”
